Sermon

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Durham, NC

7 Easter - 05/28/06

The Rev. The Reverend Scott A. Benhase

This prayer of Jesus recounted in today's Gospel lesson from John is a prayer for the Church, a prayer that the Church will "keep" the word that Jesus gave her and that God will "keep her in his name." In other words, it is a call for us as the Church to be a holy people, just as Jesus and the Father are holy. Most of us, however, are uncomfortable with the idea of being holy, let alone being part of a holy people. Many of us are turned off by the idea of being seen as acting, as they saying goes: "holier than thou." When we see examples of "holier-than-thou" attitudes around us, they rightly turn us off. Such attitudes seem to create an "us vs. them" that hermetically seals off the "holy" from the "great unwashed." But that does not mean we are not called to be a holy people. It merely means that the examples we have in the popular church culture are not compelling, and I might add, not congruent with Biblical holiness.

Pop culture holiness so often uses Christianity as a means to an end. In some ways, it seeks to make God beholden to the so-called holy person. The formula goes something like this: If one lives a life following God's commandments then God will be compelled to grant many blessings. This pop culture holiness creates a quid pro quo relationship with God where God is a divine ATM machine dolling out rewards for pure and pious behavior.

I love to watch and listen to TV preachers. The hottest one right now is Joel Osteen from the Lakewood Church in Houston. Now, Pastor Osteen seems like a real nice person and what he preaches is not at all offensive. And that may be the problem. Every sermon I've heard from him creates the same basic scenario: by following God's recipe for holiness, each of us will receive blessings that are tangible, like more wealth, a nicer house, and more love. This idea of holiness, of using our practices of faith as a way of extorting God's blessings is what makes us all uneasy and it rightly turns us off.

Another image of holiness is a lot more faithful, but it can be just as problematic. It is a distorted image of the saints, both past and present. We see living saints such as Desmond Tutu or we read or hear about the saints from the Church's past and we are intimidated by their witness. We think that they are so extraordinary that we could not possibly live like them. What we don't so often read or hear about is their personal struggles; their doubts, and their flaws and their occasional feet of clay.

One of the newer saints in our church calendar is Jonathan Daniels. He was martyred in Mississippi. In the summer of 1964 before his last year in seminary, he went to Mississippi to assist in the Freedom Summer voter registration effort. During his work, he was arrested along with three other young adults who were working with him. When they were released from jail a few days later, they went across the street to a general store to make a phone call so someone would pick them up. He walked to the front door of the store with a young black woman who had been arrested with him. A man came out with a shotgun, pointed it at the young woman and pulled the trigger.

Jonathan had just enough time to jump in front of her and take the blast in his own chest.  It was an amazing act of faith and courage.

In hearing his story, we might think that he was so extraordinary that we could never be like him. What we also ought to know about him is how confused he was. We should know the many doubts he had about his faith. In reading his letters from the last year of his life, we find someone struggling to even put one foot in front of the other in his faith, hoping to find God in the people and circumstances of his life. So whether we are turned off by the plastic holiness of people who use their faith to better themselves or whether we are intimidated by the sacrificial holiness of Jonathan Daniels, we may just throw our hands in the air and conclude we're left out. If those were the only two options for what it means to be holy people, it would be understandable if we reached such a conclusion, because we no doubt don't whish to be the former and, chances are we will never have the opportunity to be the latter.

But there is a third way of being a holy people. It is way that does not require us to use God get the things we want. It is a way that does not require us to make the ultimate sacrifice for our faith (although one never knows when such circumstances will present themselves). My guess is that most of us here this morning are regularly practicing this third way and we just have never named it as such. This third way is what Brother Lawrence late of the Taize Community calls "practicing the presence of God." We are here this morning practicing God's presence. We are here to offer God our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. And in the Holy Eucharist as we practice God's presence we ask God to send God's Holy Spirit upon us to make us a holy people. In a few minutes, as Cathie celebrates the Eucharist, she'll say: "Lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy your Holy Spirit may descend upon us, and upon these gifts, sanctifying them and showing them to be holy gifts for your holy people, the bread of life and the cup of salvation, the Body and Blood of your Son Jesus Christ." She will then say: "Grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in Christ, to the praise of your Name."

 "Holy gifts for your holy people." That's who we are becoming in Jesus Christ. Just because we might not recognize our holiness before God does not mean we have not been made holy in Jesus. It simply means we have yet to realize it. The truth is:  Jesus has made us holy, sacred, and precious in God's eyes. God has made us saints-in-training. Our task is simply to begin to practice God's holy presence in the people, things, and circumstances of our lives.

You do not need to be a beauty queen or a great athlete. You do not need to be a famous archbishop or be martyred for your faith to be holy. We are holy because God has made us so. And we are part of a holy people; a people who have thrown their lot in with God; a people who are becoming the kind of people God intends us for us to become.

Rather than haloes, holy people occasionally have sore knees from praying so fervently. Holy people sometimes have tired hands from all the reaching out they do. Holy people often have raspy voices because they have spent so much time encouraging others. And the arms of holy people sometimes grow weary because they are always embracing the lonely and lost and supporting them in their time of need.

That's what it means to be a holy people. And that is not only what you are, it is what God has called you to be. We need to stop letting the pop culture Christianity define what it means to be holy. As long as we do, we may find ourselves actually believing the wrong definition. It is time we fessed up. And it is tough for Episcopalians to do this, but admit it we must. We are a holy people. We are made so by God. Live into that definition. Wear it, not in pride, but in thanksgiving for what God has done in the life of the world. Claim the holiness with which God has bestowed you. It's not about deserving or even earning such holiness. Heck, not of us deserve it and we sure can't earn it. It is gift God has bestowed upon us. Walk in holiness all the days of your life. AMEN.

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